


Under the falling lights, We met

by thinlines



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Fourth of July, M/M, This is a little sad, but happiest of all endings i promise, don't judge me okkk, i swear i wrote this in July
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-09
Updated: 2014-08-09
Packaged: 2018-02-12 10:20:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,137
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2106054
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thinlines/pseuds/thinlines
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Under shitty fireworks on a beach, with hair dyed red and positively drunk off his ass, Louis never expected to remember much of that night. It was the Fourth of July when he met a boy with green eyes. Everything was beautiful but unfair at the same time.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Under the falling lights, We met

“Watch where you going!” He slurred as he shoved the heavy body that bumped into him aside. He conjured the last bit of his energy and tried to give the stranger a death stare. He blinked. Louis sobered up for a second as he stared into a pair of wide green eyes, which reminded him of grassy fields and spring. He felt the rush of alcohol thinning in his veins as his eyes traveled up the boy’s face, pass his dimple and lingered on the bouncy curls escaping from a ridiculously colorful headscarf.

Fireworks boomed above both of their heads. Oh, the irony. The boy turned to watch the streaks of the fireworks fall out of the sky as Louis continued to stare.

“They’re beautiful.” He breathed and Louis shivered when he heard the low husky voice.  
“You’re beautiful.” It must have been the alcohol. Even Louis was stunned at his suddenly burst of confidence. He ducked his head, shielding his deep blush from view.

A few more booms. The crowd was cheering and toasting each other. Louis’ phone vibrated in his pocket.

“I’m not so sure you should be saying that to a person you just shoved so unceremoniously out of your way.” Gold lined the sky with a dash of electric blue. The fireworks were always shitty in Louis’ eyes, but tonight, somehow they seemed… magical.  
“Cheeky.” Louis couldn’t help but grin as the boy offered him a bottle of beer he had been holding loosely in his hand. Louis raised his eyebrows.  
“Trying to get me drunk huh? I’m already there.” He took a sip anyway as the boy doubled over, slapping a hand to his mouth as he roared with laughter.

“I’m Harry.”  
“Louis.”  
“You look like a Louis.”  
“How does a person look like a Louis?”  
“A person with poorly dyed hair and calls random strangers beautiful.”  
Louis was finding it a little hard to breathe. Maybe it was the alcohol doing its thing again. Or maybe it was just the effects of this strange lanky boy with the perfect smile standing in front of him.  
“Objection. I lost a bet and had to dye my hair to fit the occasion. And you don’t look remotely like a Harry.”  
“What do I look like then?”  
“A… Harold.”  
“Isn’t that the same thing?”  
“You wish.”

It seemed like they had slipped into their own little world. Louis wasn’t aware that they had left the crowded beach and was strolling along the shore. Talking to Harry was the easiest thing. It felt like Louis could do this for a lifetime. Their shoulders bumped more often than necessary and their hands brushed closer than comfort. The sand crunched underneath their bare soles and the sea whispered an inaudible story to them.

“Say, I come to the beach to watch the fireworks every Fourth of July. How come I’ve never seen you before?” By this time, they were far away enough that the booming music of the party couldn’t reach them. It was just the soft rolling tides and a warm laughing boy beside him under the night sky. It was probably close to dawn. Louis could feel the constant vibration of his cell against his thighs, but he didn’t care. He was with a beautiful boy and if he didn’t kiss Harry tonight, he wasn’t going to forgive himself.

“I was there, on the beach, every Fourth of July. I swear.” Harry said raising his large hand and crossing an invisible x across the place where his heart would be. Louis wanted to splay his fingers across Harry’s chest and check if the heart there was pounding as hard as his own was.  
“Then how come we’ve never crossed paths?! Mind you, it’s a tiny town we live in.” It wasn’t logical, Louis thought. It just wasn’t. Harry shrugged and looked off into the distance.  
“You should pick it up, you know. Whoever is calling might be in distress, judging from the fact your phone is lighting up every ten minutes.” Harry said out of nowhere. Louis didn’t.

Instead, he lunged forward, into Harry’s space and shut off the stars.

“Where have you been all my life?” He breathed against Harry’s red chapped lips and felt the hand on his back tightened around him, drawing him in.  
“I’m here now.”

They lied on the beach exchanging sweet kisses and laughing into each other’s hair. Something inside Louis suddenly snapped together when Harry’s hot hands slipped farther up his shirt. Something that Louis was desperately pushing back into the dark shadows of his mind was still managing to choke him as Harry kissed a mark onto his neck. It all seemed like a dream, but at the same time, a nightmare.

No one was watching. It was perfectly fine.

No, it wasn’t fine.

The stars were watching. The sea was listening in. And most of all, it wasn’t fair. It wasn’t fair for Harry.

“I have a boyfriend.” Louis said into Harry’s curls as he gripped the hand pulling at his pants’ zipper. The hands stopped and luminous green eyes met his. They weren’t shining with accusation nor did they have the screaming “how could you throw yourself at me when you have a boyfriend” look. Instead, they were soft around the edges and somehow, unreadable.  
“I should have known.” Harry said, smoothing Louis’ fiery red hair into place. He propped himself onto his elbows and fiddled with the grainy sand.  
“I’m sorry.” Louis whispered. Half of him wanted Harry to punch him in the face and run off, out of his life forever. Half of him wanted to hold Harry tight in his arms and kiss him.  
“Don’t say that. It wasn’t all your fault. I know we both wanted it.” Harry voiced the truth and the bluntness of it made Louis ached even more inside.

Louis’ phone vibrated once again. He stood up and watched as Harry sprawled back down onto the sand. Louis could see the bright stars dancing in Harry’s eyes.  
“Harry?”  
“Hmm?”  
“I’m not going to just walk out of this, of what we were having and of what I know we can have.” Louis half shouted at the curly hair boy, who had made him laugh tonight more than he could remember. He bent down and gave Harry a deep biting kiss before the boy could protest.  
“See you, curly boy. Next Fourth of July.”

As he ran back across the beach, he could still hear the delicious ringing of Harry’s laughter in his ears.  
“I’ll be waiting for you, then.”

And he was.

This time, brilliant red and violent shades of purple covered the skies as he gasped against Harry’s lips.

Later, Harry joked that the colors would have matched Louis’ hair if he had dyed it this year.


End file.
